Michio Kaku Rated the Pentagon UFO File Release a “10 Out of 10.” He Said the Burden of Proof Has Officially Flipped.

On May 9, 2026, one day after the Pentagon published 162 declassified UAP records at war.gov/UFO, theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku appeared on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime and did something that a physicist of his standing had not done on a major mainstream news program before: he gave the release a numerical score, said it represented a fundamental change in the epistemological position of the entire UFO debate, and directly congratulated the sitting president for releasing it against the recommendations of his own intelligence agencies. “I would put it at a 10 because we’re at a turning point,” Kaku said. “For decades we had to rely upon eyewitness accounts of housewives, truck drivers — people would snicker and laugh at them. Now we’re talking about huge files that are top secret that the American public can see.” His second statement was even more pointed: “I’d like to congratulate President Trump for having the nerve to go against recommendations by the FBI and CIA to release these files so that independent researchers, scientists can go over them and we can make up our own minds.”

Michio Kaku is not a fringe personality. He is the co-founder of string field theory, a theoretical framework developed to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity, holds a tenured professorship at the City University of New York, and has written multiple bestselling books on physics including Hyperspace, Visions, The Future of the Mind, and The God Equation. He appears regularly on television to explain cutting-edge physics to general audiences. He is, in the specific way that matters here, a serious establishment scientist with mainstream credibility.

His willingness to go on record with a “10 out of 10” assessment of the UAP file release and to characterize it as a genuine turning point is not a small thing. It signals that the UAP disclosure process has reached a point where credentialed scientists with careers to protect are willing to engage with it publicly, in positive terms, on prime-time national television.

What He Wants Next

Kaku’s enthusiasm about the release was tempered by a specific scientific demand. He told Jesse Watters that what he would most like to see from any physical evidence of extraterrestrial life — if any such evidence exists — is independent scientific analysis. He called for a scientific committee to investigate or dissect any physical evidence that emerges from the disclosure process, specifically so that independent researchers rather than government agencies control the interpretation.

This is a meaningful distinction. The PURSUE program — the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — is a government-managed disclosure mechanism. Documents get released in tranches as the government deems appropriate. Scientists working outside the classification system cannot independently verify what has been withheld or how the released materials have been curated. Kaku’s request for a scientific committee is a reminder that transparency about the existence of files is not the same thing as transparency about their contents or their completeness.

“We can make up our own minds rather than having the CIA make up our minds,” he said.

The Burden of Proof Statement

The most philosophically significant element of Kaku’s remarks is the burden-of-proof argument, which he has been making in various forms for years but has never had a better public opening to make than now.

The standard skeptical position on UAP is that the burden of proof lies with those claiming something extraordinary is happening: believers must prove the presence of something non-human. This is scientifically reasonable in the abstract. But Kaku has argued for some time that the accumulation of documented, sensor-corroborated, military-grade UAP evidence has shifted that framework. When naval radar, infrared cameras, and multiple trained observers simultaneously track objects performing maneuvers that no known aircraft can perform, across encounters corroborated by sensor data from multiple independent platforms, the “this is probably a misidentification” explanation carries its own burden of proof.

“It used to be that believers had to prove that these objects were from an intelligent race in outer space,” Kaku said. “Now the burden of proof is on the government to prove they’re not from intelligent beings in outer space.”

The Pentagon file release, in his assessment, did not cross the threshold of proving extraterrestrial origin. But it did fundamentally change the landscape of the argument by making the documented encounter record public rather than classified. The debunkers now have to deal with the same data that the believers do. Nobody gets to cite classification as a reason to dismiss what is in those files any longer.

What Comes After

Kaku’s Fox News appearance was one of dozens of expert and political reactions to the release within 48 hours. Luis Elizondo, the former AATIP director currently recovering from a near-fatal motorcycle crash, commented from home. Steven Greer commented. Obama issued a statement reiterating that contact with intelligent aliens had “not happened yet” — a formulation that left considerable room for interpretation.

What all of these responses share is a sense that whatever the first 162 files contain, they are the beginning of something rather than the end. Additional tranches are coming every few weeks. The original film from the Apollo 17 mission is being analyzed by NASA and the Department of War. The 46 specific classified video files that Rep. Luna demanded by April 14 are still, as of this writing, not publicly released.

Kaku gave it a 10. The rest of the files are not yet here.

Sources: Fox News / Jesse Watters Primetime — We Are at a Turning Point for UFOs: Dr. Michio Kaku (May 9, 2026) — Zambian Observer — Michio Kaku Calls Trump’s Pentagon UFO File Release a “10” Turning Point (May 9, 2026) — Unexplained Mysteries forum — Theoretical Physicist Michio Kaku: UFO Disclosure Is a Turning Point (May 10, 2026) — NBC News — Pentagon Releases Declassified UFO Files (May 8, 2026)